


Holding My Breath with a Baseball Bat

by ManhattanProject



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Autistic Jack, Bitty has ADHD, Canon typical alcohol use, Epikegster of '14 doesn't follow canon, Kent has anxiety, Kent plays for the Falconers, M/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, as in Kent and Jack worked their problems out like fucking adults long ago, as in they're both drunk, endgame pb&j
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-18
Updated: 2017-03-28
Packaged: 2018-10-07 06:18:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10353996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ManhattanProject/pseuds/ManhattanProject
Summary: Bitty just stares at the man next to him, his eyes roaming over every feature he’s had memorized for months. The small scar above his left eye, hardly visible, but Bitty knows it’s there. The fading bruise on his cheek from dropped gloves on the ice last week. The smallest of cuts on his jaw from when Bitty’s ass distracted him while shaving.“I love you."--or the one in which Kent gets traded to the Falconers, Jack has reconciled his friendship with Kent, and Bitty is oblivious when it comes to Jack.





	1. If You're Worried About Tomorrow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Work title from "Townie" by Mitski
> 
> Chapter title from "It'll Never be the Same" by Pansy Division

DECEMBER 2014

Bitty is halfway through his first cup of tub juice when he spots Jack emerging downstairs and joining the party, which is weird, since Jack never leaves his room when a Kegster is happening. Maybe the Epikegster is different. Either way, Bitty excuses himself from the conversation he’s in with an already drunk girl and makes his way into the kitchen where Jack had disappeared. 

“Hey Bittle,” Jack says when we walks into the kitchen. Jack has a bottle of beer in his hand and is leaning against the counter awkwardly, fiddling with his cellphone. 

“Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle, what are you doing out here in the land of the living, Mr Zimmermann?” Bitty says, hopping up onto the counter (he figures it has to be bleached to hell and back tomorrow anyway) and managing to only spill a little bit of the tub juice in his cup. 

Jack looks like he wants to comment on the first half of Bitty’s sentence, his forehead furrowing ever so slightly, but decides he doesn’t want to know. “I’m, euh, waiting for someone.” 

“Got a hot date?” Bitty’s chirping him but Jack’s mouth opens then shuts again and he blinks, staring just off to the side of Bitty’s face. “Oh my Lord, you do?” 

“Euh, not really,” Jack says, shifting his weight. 

“Whatever you say, darlin’,” Bitty says, shooting him a wink and downing some more of the tub juice. Jack opens his mouth again to protest but unusually loud cheering erupts from the rest of the Haus and Bitty sighs. “I really hope they ain’t doin’ kegstands this early,” he says, hopping off the counter so he can check out what’s going on. 

Jack follows him with a weird expression on his face, but Bitty doesn’t pay any attention to it - Jack always has a weird expression on his face. When they rejoin the mass of people, Bitty frowns slightly. There’s nothing unusual going on that he can see. There’s a blonde guy taking selfies with some people (he’s probably from the swim team, they have all the cute boys), but that’s not too unusual. Bitty turns to say something to Jack but Jack is striding past him towards the blonde guy. When he gets to him he taps on the shorter man’s shoulder, and when he turns around he immediately pulls Jack into a hug. They talk for a few minutes, the blonde guy gesturing wildly, but Bitty isn’t close enough to hear anything they’re saying. Suddenly Jack turns towards Bitty, waving him over. 

As soon as Bitty gets close enough to get a good look at the blonde guy’s face, he recognizes him immediately. “Well I’ll be damned, if it isn’t Kent Parson,” he says, smiling at him. “Who knew Jack Zimmermann kept such high society?” Kent laughs and pats Jack on the shoulder. 

“Uh, Parse, this is Eric,” Jack says, his voice monotone. 

“Call me Bitty,” Bitty says with a roll of his eyes. “Jack here is literally the only one who doesn’t.”

“Sounds like Zimms,” Kent says with a smile. “Bitty, huh?”

“Hockey nickname.” Understanding washes over Kent’s face and he shoves Jack gently in the shoulder. 

“Zimms, man, why didn’t you tell me this was the Eric from your team!” he says, then, to Bitty “I’ve heard a lot, like a serious lot, about you.” 

“Oh, euh, I forgot,” Jack says with a shrug. 

“Lord, this boy. Hope he was sayin’ nice things about me,” Bitty says, but he gives Jack a fond look.    
  


“Oh, definitely,” Kent says with a chuckle, and Jack flushes slightly before muttering something in French. Bitty can’t understand him, but Kent just responds right back, and Bitty gets the distinct feeling that this conversation is a little too intimate for him.    
  


“Well Mr Parson it was nice meeting you, but I got roped into Nursey patrol for the next hour so I will see you boys later!” He gives them both a small wave and makes his way over to where Dex is standing with Nursey, looking like he’s about ready to choke the man next to him. 

“Bitty thank god please take him from me,” Dex says, pulling Bitty into a bone crushing hug. “He’s already had two cups of tub juice and if he tries to flirt with me one more time…” Dex trails off his sentence and takes a deep breath, his face nearly as red as his hair. “Anyway, have fun with him.” Bitty just laughs and pats him on the arm before shooing him away. 

“Bitty! Man of the hour!” Nursey says, raising his cup of tub juice in a weak salute and splashing part of it onto Bitty’s shoes. 

“Alright Nursey I think it’s time for you to slow your roll,” Bitty says with a laugh, reaching out and taking the cup from the taller guy. 

“Bitty you should play beer pong with me!” Nursey says no less than a minute later and Bitty only gets him to stop pestering him by telling him ‘maybe later’. Satisfied, Nursey disappears into the crowd to find lord knows who and Bitty lets out a huff of air as he prepares himself for the next hour. 

-

One hour and a (lost) game of beer pong later Bitty passes Nursey patrol off to Chowder, who, quite frankly, looks way too excited at the prospect of keeping an eye on notoriously clumsy Derek Nurse at this level of inebriation. 

When he gets into the kitchen for a well-deserved beer (Bitty was actually decent at beer pong, thank you very much. Nursey was the one drinking most of the beer) he finds Kent there, chatting animatedly with a girl that Bitty thinks might be on the tennis team. As soon as he spots Bitty he excuses himself and comes over, a serious look on his face. “Bitty, man, I have a question,” he says as he claps a hand on his shoulder.  Bitty just cocks an eyebrow up in response and Kent continues. “Will you be my partner in beer pong?” 

“I - what?” Bitty asks. That is exactly the last question that he had expected to hear from the man in front of him. 

“Okay this is going to sound kinda lame I guess, but I’ve never played beer pong at a _college_  party,” Kent says. “I’ve never actually been to a college party either.”

“Really?” Bitty asks, mentally scolding himself as soon as he says the words. Of course Kent has never been to a college party, he’s been playing professional hockey instead. “Alright then,” he relents. “But I should warn you, I’ve had two cups of tub juice and I’ve already played one game of pong so don’t be expectin’ too much of me, you hear?”

Kent just grins wide and pats Bitty on the shoulder man. “Rad, man, thanks! Ready, then?”

It turns out their game of beer pong is with a very drunk Nursey, and a less drunk Chowder (but bless that boy’s heart, he’s no good at this game), and Kent and Bitty win easily. Afterwards they end up on the sagging front porch, a cup of tub juice (only partially full, Bitty doesn’t want to die) in each of their hands. They spend the next half hour talking mostly about the Samwell Men’s Hockey team (it’s mostly just Bitty rambling, and Kent is surprisingly interested) and draining their tub juice, and they’re both unquestionably drunk by the time they’re done. 

“Hey Bits,” Kent says, his words surprisingly clear. “You got a girlfriend?” 

“I’m gay,” Bitty says, then immediately slaps his hand to his mouth. “That was not - I, um -” Kent cuts him off with a reassuring hand on his knee. 

“It’s cool Bits,” Kent says. “You ever told anyone that?”

“I, um, a few of the guys on the team know, but that’s it,” Bitty says. “I grew up in Georgia so I couldn’t really come out back home, y’know? Thanks for bein’ okay about it.” 

“I’d be pretty hypocritical if I was,” Kent says with a chuckle. 

“What?” Bitty says, turning to look at him with wide eyes. 

“I’m bi,” Kent says. “And also, I really want to kiss you, and I guess that’s pretty gay. Can I?” 

“Can you - oh! Yeah,” Bitty says, sliding closer to Kent so their thighs are pressed together. Kent leans his face close to Bitty’s and hovers his lips in front of the smaller man’s for a few painstakingly long seconds before finally pressing them together. 

The kiss starts off soft but Kent quickly deepens it, and Bitty obliges. Bitty finally pulls away to breathe, but Kent just presses his lips to Bitty’s neck, and he gasps, letting his head fall back so Kent has better access. Bitty’s jeans are starting to feel uncomfortably tight as Kent sucks a dark bruise into the soft skin where Bitty’s neck meets his jaw. 

Feeling emboldened by the tub juice buzzing through his veins, Bitty straddles Kent’s lap, nearly falling off the porch steps in the process, and Kent laughs. “That was...oddly attractive,” he says as he draws Bitty in again and resumes where they left off. Kent tastes like cheap alcohol but Bitty is drunk enough that he doesn’t care, and he’s sure he tastes the same. He can feel Kent hard beneath him and Bitty rolls his hips, drawing a sinful noise from Kent’s mouth. “What do you say we take this somewhere else?” Kent says, his breath on Bitty’s ear making him shudder. 

“Lord, yes,” Bitty says, climbing off Kent’s lap and grabbing his arm, pulling him through the Haus and up the stairs, digging around in his shorts for the key to his room. Kent crowds up behind him, his dick pressed to Bitty’s ass as he leaves wet kisses and the occasional nip to the back of Bitty’s neck. Bitty finally retrieves the key from his pocket and opens the door, immediately pushing Kent up against it when it clicks shut. 

“I think I have an unfair amount of hickeys right now, Mr Parson,” Bitty says, his voice low, before leaning in and attaching his lips to the underside of Kent’s jaw, sucking a dark bruise into the skin there. 

“My teammates are gonna chirp me so hard at practice tomorrow,” Kent groans, but grinds his hips into Bitty’s. 

“Good.”

\--

The first thing Bitty’s brain registers the next morning is that he’s hot - extremely, uncomfortably hot. The second thing is that there’s someone lying almost completely on top of him, their naked chest pressed against his back, and the third is that he really needs to pee. He groans as his brain registers a fourth thing - the mad pounding in his head - and tries to wiggle his way out from whoever’s he’s pinned under, but whoever it is is _seriously_  solid, and that piece of info flips a switch in Bitty’s brain, and he _definitely_  remembers what happened last night, and who’s lying on top of him. 

Bitty huffs and reaches his hand around to smack Kent on the arm, and all he gets is a mumbled, “Watimesit? ‘stoo hot.”

“Don’t you even think about goin’ back to sleep!” Bitty says, smacking Kent on the arm again. This time Kent rolls off him just enough that Bitty can extract himself, and he hurries to the bathroom without waiting to see if Kent is really awake. When he returns after taking the chance to brush his teeth, Kent is sitting up in Bitty’s bed, leaning against the wall and looking at something on his phone. 

“So, um, last night,” Bitty says, trailing off. He stops at the foot of the bed and goes to toy with the hem of his shirt before realizing the only thing he’s wearing is underwear. 

“Was great,” Kent says, setting his phone off to the side and smirking at Bitty, “and I would not be opposed to doing it again.” Bitty is trying to think of a response that doesn’t sound too eager when someone knocks loudly on the door and startles him, hand flying to his chest. Kent erupts in laughter behind him, hand over his mouth so Jack can’t hear him. 

“Bittle, have you seen Parson?” Jack’s voice comes through the door, and Bitty turns to Kent, panicked. Kent just shrugs his shoulders and Bitty tries to think up a good response that isn’t just ‘Yeah, Jack, actually, I fucked your best friend slash ex boyfriend last night and it was great and we’re probably gonna do it again’. 

He finally settles for “Yeah, I let him crash in my bed last night. He was too drunk to be drivin’.” There’s silence from the other side of the door and Bitty’s heart is racing. 

“Oh, euh, well, tell him I want to talk to him when he wakes up,” Jack says finally, and Bitty relaxes. 

“Will do, hon,” Bitty says, giving a thumbs-up to the door even though he knows Jack can’t see him, and Kent snorts. 

“Hush, you,” Bitty says, but he’s smiling. He makes his way over to the bed and leans up against the wall next to Kent. “Do you think we should tell him?”

“I think we’re both mutually consenting adults and Jack doesn’t need to know that we’re fucking, even if he is my best friend,” Kent says.

“You say that like it’s a regular occurrence.”

“Maybe I want it to be.”

“Kent.” Bitty gives him a flat stare. 

“I’m serious,” Kent says. Bitty studies his face, and he really does look serious.    
  


“So what are you sayin’?” 

“I’m saying that I’d definitely love to repeat last night - with less alcohol - and maybe,” Kent pauses and Bitty waits, heart beating wildly. “Maybe something more.” 

“Why?” Bitty scolds himself for how ineloquent he’s being, but honestly. Why does NHL star Kent Parson want anything more than a drunken fumble with him, the closeted, gay, southern transplant who bakes far too many pies and mothers his friends like it’s a full-time job?

“Last night, when we talked, you just seemed interesting, and nice,” Kent says. “And let’s be real, the sex was great.” Bitty flushes and Kent wraps an arm around his shoulder. “I’m not saying you have to like, commit to me or anything. I just think I’d like to get know you better while also having awesome sex with you, and I guess if it becomes something else…”

“I think I’d like that,” Bitty says, a soft smile on his face. 

“Yeah?” Bitty doesn’t say anything in response. Instead, he pulls Kent in for a kiss that starts off sweet and stays like that for awhile. 

“You got practice tonight?” Bitty asks when he pulls away at some point, lips red and slightly swollen. Kent nods. 

“I need to leave in three hours.” 

“What do you say we make the most of that time, then?” Bitty says, then draws Kent in for a kiss more hungry than the last. 

When Kent makes it to practice that afternoon, Tater takes one look at him in the locker room and snorts. “You have fun last night.” 

Kent smirks. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright y'all I don't really know where this is going. I know what I want for it, but what I have is more of a skeleton than a game plan. I'm going to try to update every week but I work full-time, so I make no promises.
> 
> I hope y'all enjoyed this, let me know what y'all thought!


	2. Somewhere Down This Road

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [4:19PM]Kent: im going 2 hug u so hard bro  
> [4:20PM]Kent: also blaze it lmao  
> [4:24PM]Bitty: im not even gonna dignify that w a response  
> [4:24PM]Kent: :( i thought we were friends  
> [4:26PM]Bitty: debatable

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for coming out in this chapter, but it's all positive!  
> -  
> Chapter title from 'Last Young Renegade' by All Time Low because I'm unapologetic trash.

FEBRUARY 2015

By the time Kent and Bitty see each other in person next, two months have gone by. The month after the Epikegster had seen Bitty caught up in a whirlwind of Georgia holiday spirit (and quite frankly, far too many questions about when he was going to get himself a nice lady), and when he’d returned to Samwell for the start of the new semester he’d been immediately bogged down by the intensity of the classes he had signed up for. 

The two of them had stayed in touch via Snapchat for the most part, with Kent sending Bitty a ridiculous amount of snaps containing dogs, and Bitty sending Kent a ridiculous amount of snaps featuring pies. They’d also Skyped twice - once on Christmas Eve, and again a few days later (that one may have turned into Skype sex, and one of Bitty’s older cousins may have overheard it, and that’s how Bitty may have accidentally come out to exactly one [1] member of the Bittle family). 

Online interaction is a weak substitute for the real thing, however, so when the two of them finally have matching free weekends Kent buys an Amtrak ticket for Bitty, ignoring the younger man’s protests about spending money on him. 

“Listen Bitty this is totally just as much for me as it is for you,” Kent says while putting his credit card info in to purchase the ticket, phone lying on the desk next to him as he types. “I want to see you again, and also I really want you to fuck me.” 

“Kent! I am in the kitchen and you’re on speaker so you had better watch it,” Bitty says, hands currently covered in crust for the pie he’s baking. 

“Sorry,” Kent says with a laugh, but he doesn’t sound sorry. 

“Doubtful. Just be more careful when you’re on speaker, hon,” Bitty says as he presses the dough into a pie tin. “Lord knows how these boys gossip.” 

“I know, I know,” Kent says with a laugh. “Anyway, I texted you the link for the tickets. You said your last class was over at three so I got it for five, is that okay?”

“Yeah, that’s great. I’ll get one of the boys to drive me there.”

“Rad,” Kent says, and Bitty rolls his eyes. “I’ll pick you up from the station and we can get like, takeout or something if that’s chill. I’ll wine and dine you properly Saturday night.” Bitty can’t see Kent’s face because it’s just a phone call, but he knows the older blonde definitely has a smirk on his face right now, and he chuckles. 

“How romantic of you,” Bitty deadpans. 

“You know it,” Kent says. “And yes, I’m definitely making finger guns in the direction of my phone right now.”

“How old are you again, Kent?” 

“Hey, finger guns never stop being cool,” Kent protests. 

“Bless your heart - you keep tellin’ yourself that.”

“You know, now I’m thinking those finger guns should’ve just been the middle finger.” 

\---   
“Where are you going?” Bitty nearly drops his laptop in shock and twists around to see Jack standing in the doorway of his room, watching him pack. 

“Lord almighty, Jack, don’t go givin’ a boy a heart attack like that,” Bitty says, turning back to his bag and placing his laptop inside of it. 

“Sorry.” 

“It’s alright. Anyway, I’m going to Providence for the weekend. Meetin’ up with a friend.” 

“You have a friend in Providence?” 

“Jack.” 

“Sorry. I just didn’t know you had plans,” Jack says. He has a funny look on his face, but Bitty can’t interpret it, and he doesn’t press.

“Guess I forgot to tell y’all,” Bitty says. He quickly ticks off the items in his bag to the list on his phone and when he’s satisfied he has everything he zips it up. 

“I guess I’ll see you in a few days, then,” Jack says and turns around, starting to walk across the hall. 

“Jack, hold on,” Bitty says. He sets his bag on the bed and walks over to the doorway. “Do you actually think you could give me a ride to the station? I know it’s kind of last minute and all, but it slipped my mind, you know how I get. I really meant to ask Dex last week but I didn’t and now he’s off somewhere else and -” 

“Bittle,” Jack says, and Bitty closes his mouth, face flushing slightly. “It’s fine, I can drive you. When do you need to leave?”

“Half an hour?” 

“Sounds good,” Jack says with a quick nod of his head. 

“Bless you.” Bitty gives him a thumbs up (he’d learned pretty quick into his Freshman year that unless you were Shitty, you didn’t hug Jack) and laughs at the awkward thumbs up Jack gives him in return before pulling out his phone to text Kent.

  
[3:57PM]Bitty: jack is giving me a ride to the station, cant wait to see u!!!

[4:19PM]Kent: im going 2 hug u so hard bro

[4:20PM]Kent: also blaze it lmao

[4:24PM]Bitty: im not even gonna dignify that w a response

[4:24PM]Kent: :( i thought we were friends

[4:26PM]Bitty: debatable

[4:28PM]Kent: my heart is torn, maybe i wont pick u up :’(

 

“So this friend you’re seeing, is it, euh, is it a girl?” Jack says on the way to the station, glancing over at Bitty in the passenger seat and pulling Bitty away from his conversation with Kent. Bitty doesn’t respond immediately, deciding how he should answer the question, and Jack takes his silence the wrong way. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“Oh! No, Jack, you’re fine,” Bitty says biting his lip hard before pushing through into the next sentence. “But no, it’s um, it’s not a girl, cause I’m gay.” 

“Oh.”

“Oh?” 

“I, euh, I guess I’m not surprised,” Jack says. He looks over his shoulder briefly and merges into the left of the two exit lanes. “I mean, not, euh, in a bad way you just haven’t ever shown interest in a girl and -”

“Jack, it’s okay.” Bitty cuts him off. “I mean, you’ve seen me.” He shrugs. “I’m not exactly, y’know, Holster or something.”

“Oh, well Shitty gave us that speech about gender roles and stuff, and how liking, um, feminine things doesn’t make you gay,” Jack says, and Bitty has to keep from laughing because honestly, where did this man come from? 

“Bless your heart, Jack,” Bitty says. “I’m glad you learned something from Shitty’s speeches, but it’s okay, really.”

“So you’re, um, going to see a guy, then?” Bitty flushes and stares straight out the windshield. 

“Yeah. We actually hooked up a while back. He’s real nice.” 

“Well I’m glad you’re happy, Bittle,” Jack says. He glances over at Bitty, and he’s not really smiling, but he sounds genuinely happy.

“Thanks, Jack.” 

The two of them are comfortably silent for the last few minutes to the station, (Bitty’s really just trying to wind down from the adrenaline of coming out. It doesn’t ever get easier.) and when they get there Bitty rambles his thank you for a few minutes before throwing his bag over his shoulder and heading inside. He gets lost trying to find the right train and they’re already boarding by the time he finally gets there. He chooses a seat that isn’t too close to other people and pulls his earbuds out, plugging them into his phone and unlocking it to turn on a playlist Nursey had recommended last week. 

 

[4:37PM]Kent: bitty?

[4:40PM]Kent: u kno i was just joking right 

[4:58PM]Bitty: sorry!!! was having a deep conversation w jack?

[5:03PM]Kent: o?

[5:04PM]Bitty: i came out to him?????

[5:06PM]Kent: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[5:06PM]Kent: WHAT DID HE SAY OMG BITTY IM SO PROUD OF U

[5:09PM]Bitty: he went on this weird little tangent about not assuming i was gay despite, well, me? bc of shittys gender roles speech??? it was kind of weird tbh

[5:10PM]Bitty: but like he was good about it he said hes happy for me and i think he meant it

[5:28PM]Kent: shit sry i dropped a glass on the floor and it was everywhere. happy abt zimms tho i wouldnt expect him to b a dick anyway

[5:31PM]Bitty: are u ok?

[5:32PM]Kent: idk u might have to kiss it better

[5:34PM]Bitty: that was cheesy. ill see u in a few min we’re about to stop

 

Bitty files off the train with the other passengers, his eyes scanning the station for Kent’s golden-blonde hair and smiling when he spots the taller blonde standing off to the side. Kent is wearing a pair of khaki joggers, a white button down with a navy blue knit sweater over it, and of course, a snapback facing the wrong way. 

Bitty can’t keep the grin off his face as he weaves through the people to where Kent is, and he’s immediately pulled off his feet and into a tight hug. “Shit, I can’t believe you’re actually here,” Kent says finally, releasing Bitty and taking him in. 

Bitty’s wearing jeans (and if he has fleece leggings on underneath, well, that’s for him to know) and a flannel button-down that’s at least two sizes too big for his small frame, and he has his coat slung across his arm, mittens in the pockets. Ransom had chirped him when he left about his heavy duty clothing choices, but it’s February, it’s cold, and lord knows Bitty’s as southern as they come. 

“I feel like it’s been ages since I saw you,” Bitty says as they start to make their way towards the exit. Kent takes Bitty’s bag when he goes to pull his coat on, and when Bitty tries to take it back Kent insists on carrying it for him. 

“Lord you’re stubborn,” Bitty says, but he brushes his fingers against Kent’s in a fond way before pulling on his mittens. 

“You know you love it,” Kent says, and Bitty rolls his eyes. 

“How far’s your place?” Bitty says as they set out down the sidewalk. 

“Literally three minutes,” Kent says. “Which is why we’re walking. And also why we’re just going to have takeout delivered when we get there.” 

“Ransom was chirpin’ me for bundling up like this, but I told him I knew what I was doing,” Bitty says as they walk. It’s about 34 degrees out and there’s a bit of a wind chill that’s turning his nose red already. 

“It’s literally a three minute walk, Bitty,” Kent says, bumping his shoulder into the smaller man. 

“A three minute walk in the freezing cold.”

“You go to school in Boston, how are you not more used to this?” 

“Oh, hush. I didn’t spend 18 years of my life in the Georgia heat to be chirped like this,” Bitty says. 

“Okay, fair point.” Kent chuckles. “Here, this is my building.” Kent puts a hand on Bitty’s shoulder to guide him around the side of the towering apartment building. He keys them into the building and Bitty follows him up the stairs. “I’m on the second floor, so I don’t really take the elevator unless I have groceries,” Kent explains. 

“As if you don’t already get enough exercise,” Bitty says. 

“I gotta work off all the extra shit my nutritionist would kill me for,” Kent says as he opens the second floor door for Bitty to walk through. Kent’s door is right across the hall, the very first apartment, and Kent fiddles around to find his keys before finally letting Bitty in. 

Bitty wasn’t really sure what he was expecting Kent’s place to be like, but it wasn’t this. It’s a corner townhouse and it’s extremely well-lit, as most of the exterior walls are taken up by large windows, and while everything looks new (by everything, Bitty really just means the fancy kitchen, which he’s definitely going to be baking a pie in), it’s decorated with an array of mismatched antique items that somehow end up working together. “You decorate this place yourself?” Bitty asks as he pulls off his coat and hangs it on the wooden coat rack sitting in the hall. 

“Yeah. I really like antique shopping, so I furnished this place basically from scrap,” Kent says, heading into the kitchen with Bitty trailing behind. “I had some stuff my mom gave me, but most of it’s stuff I bought for the place.” 

“This is real nice, Kent,” Bitty says. He stops in front of the window in the dining room and takes in the view of the Providence River that lies just outside. “Like,  _ real _ nice.” Kent laughs. 

“It’s not as fancy as some of the guys have - they joke about it sometimes - but I like it. It feels like home, even if I’m not really here much during the season.”

“I think it suits you; it’s great,” Bitty says. Kent smiles, his cheeks a little red, and Bitty feels his heart leap a little in his chest. “You know, I only got a hug at the station, and I’m feeling a little neglected.” 

“Yeah?” Kent says, cocking an eyebrow. “How should we resolve that?” 

“I think you should kiss me.”

“I think I can do that,” Kent says, stepping over to where Bitty is and pulling him close. They just look at each other for a few moments before Bitty leans up and presses their lips together. It’s hungry like they haven’t seen each other since the first time, but it’s casual like they know they have all weekend together.

Kent’s hands are running up and down Bitty’s back when Bitty’s stomach rumbles. They both laugh, lips parting, and Kent presses a quick kiss to the corner of Bitty’s mouth. “I guess that means we should order food.” 

“Food first, making out later, got it,” Bitty says as he follows Kent a few short feet into the kitchen, where the other man is looking through a stack of papers in one of the drawers. “That’s quite the collection of take-out menus you got there, Mr Parson. Your nutritionist know about that?” He sticks his tongue out at Kent and Kent pokes him in the stomach. 

“In my defense, most of these are actually like, healthy takeout places,” Kent says. “I’m a sham at cooking.”

“So you live off ‘healthy’ takeout?” Bitty looks scandalized and Kent laughs. 

“Not quite. One of the player’s wives actually started cooking for me. Once a week she brings over all these individually portioned meals and shit and throws them in my freezer. I tried to like, pay her or whatever but she told me the only thing I had to pay for was the ingredients cause she loves cooking?”

“Sounds just like me and the boys,” Bitty says. 

“I’m pretty sure Snowy called it a symbiotic relationship, once,” Kent says just as Bitty opens his mouth to say “Chowder calls it symbiotic,” and the two of them stare at each other for a few seconds before Kent says “fuckin’ goalies, man”. Bitty manages to get out “but lord knows we love them” amid his laughter and lets himself be pulled closer to Kent. 

\---

Later that evening Kent is sitting at the bar in his kitchen and watching Bitty bake some kind of apple pie (“Kent Parson, you mean to tell me this oven ain’t had a single thing besides  _ frozen pizza  _ in it before???”) when he thinks,  _ fuck _ . He watches Bitty flit around his kitchen like he’s in it everyday, and they chirp each other back and forth and it’s easy, so easy. It makes Kent’s chest feel a little tight, and he doesn’t want to think about why, so he does what he does best - chirps Bitty a little more, makes a teasing comment about his height (“Don’t you even start, mister. I will take myself right on back to Samwell.”), and pretends he doesn’t know exactly what he’s feeling. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all I'm sorry this is late, the executive dysfunction has been absolutely kicking my ass. I proofread this while tired so let me know if I missed anything! Feel free to leave me feedback if you want, and if you want to talk ridiculous hockey boys I just made a CP [tumblr](https://slidemedowntheicecoach.tumblr.com/) (I figured my followers were probably sick of seeing so much CP, honestly).


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